This week I pulled some actual prayers of kids off the internet:
Debbie, age 7, prays Dear God: Please send a new baby for Mommy. The new baby you sent last week cries too much.
Dear God: Who did you make smarter? Boys or girls? My sister and I want to know. Jimmy, 6
Dear God: How many angels are there in heaven? I would like to be the first kid in my class to know the answer. Norma, 8
Dear Lord: Thank you for the nice day today. You even fooled the TV weather man. Hank, 7
Dear God: I need a raise in my allowance. Could you have one of your angels tell my father. Thank you. David, 7
Dear God: This is my prayer. Could you please give my brother some brains. So far he doesn’t have any. Angela, 8
Fortunately God loves it when we are honest with him and he answers all kinds of prayers, though not always in the way we imagined he would.
Over the last few weeks we have been learning about prayer from the teaching and model of Jesus. Even Jesus’ disciples realized they needed to learn more about prayer. One disciple, after watching Jesus pray, asked him, “Lord, teach us to pray.” Perhaps he wanted to have a prayer life like Jesus, a prayer life which resulted in powerful and often miraculous results, and a very effective ministry. And so Jesus taught his disciples a model or a pattern for prayer which we now call the Lord’s Prayer.
Last week we looked at the first line of the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father who art in heaven.” Prayer is first and foremost an invitation into a relationship with God our Father. The Bible tells us we are adopted as God’s children when put our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior who died for our sins on the cross. Since we are adopted by God, he is our Father, or as Jesus called God (and encouraged us to do likewise) our Abba, literally translated papa or daddy. It is a personal term for God as Father. As our Father he loves us and cares for us and wants to be with us, to spend time with us, to chat with us, and that is what prayer is for. Prayer is not just about bringing needs and concerns to God, but relating with God and sharing our life with your heavenly Father like you might share with your father or mother, or perhaps a best friend. God wants us to relate to him, to tell him what is on our mind, our frustrations, our joys, our anger, our thanks.
In the second part of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray “Hallowed be your name.” Hallowed is kind of an archaic word, we don’t exactly use it anymore. Hallowed means “Holy” or “honored is your name.” When we say “hallowed be thy name,” or “holy is your name,” we are honoring or revering God. While God is our Father and wants to relate to us in a loving way, we must also realize God is holy. We should not come to God in a casual, flippant manner. He is still holy and pure, and judges all sin and unrighteousness.
It seems over the last few decades we have leaned more towards God as our loving heavenly Father, and have lost our respect for God. The Bible reminds us that we must both love and fear God.
NIV Deuteronomy 10:12 And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to observe the LORD’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?
In other words we need to have a healthy dose of fear when we come before God. He is after all the one who created you, and it is only by his word that we are alive, he is the one who holds the keys to heaven and Hell, and will stand as our judge one day. The only reason we can come before him is because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross. We have done nothing to deserve being in God’s presence and ask requests of him, it is only through the sacrifice of Jesus that we have this privilege. We need to give God the honor and respect he deserves
1. Honoring God in Prayer
How can we honor and respect God in our prayer life?
A. Praising God
One way we bring honor to God in prayer is by praising God. When Jesus said, “Hallowed or Holy is Your name,” it was a form of praising God.
NLT Psalm 22:23 Praise the LORD, all you who fear him! Honor him, all you descendants of Jacob! Show him reverence, all you descendants of Israel!
As this Psalm demonstrates, praising God is synonymous with honoring and revering God. Praise is one form of prayer. Typically when we think of praise we think of music, but praise is simply telling God how great he is, whether we put it to music or not. Perhaps another way of thinking of praise is bragging on God, telling God how great he is. Not that God needs an ego boost, but God likes to be appreciated.
i. Praising God’s Name – Praising God for Who He Is
One way people praised God in the Bible was by using a name for God which God had revealed about himself or a name which shared their experience with God. For example, God revealed his name in the Bible as Yahweh or Jehovah, as it is sometimes pronounced (anytime in the OT when LORD is found in capital letters it stands for Yahweh).
When Abraham was told by God to sacrifice his one and only son, the son of the promise, Isaac, God provided a ram at the last minute for him to sacrifice instead. Abraham praised God as Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will Provide (Gen. 22:14). Moses built an altar to God after the Israelites were able to defend themselves against a surprise attack from the Amalekites, he praised God as Jehovah-nissi, the Lord is my Banner (Ex. 17:15). Gideon built an altar to the Lord after his first encounter with God and named it Jehovah-shalom, The Lord is Peace (Jud. 6:24). David praised God in the Psalms as his Rock (19:14), his Fortress, his Deliverer (18), his Strong Tower (61:3), his Savior (38:22) after God had saved him during his time of wandering in the desert to get away from king Saul who was trying to kill him. Jesus praised God as his Father. In the Bible God is called Creator, Friend, Helper, Judge, Teacher, Comforter, Physician, the list goes on and on. Each name of God in the Bible is based either upon God’s revelation of himself and his character or someone’s experience with God.
When we honor God, we can praise God by praising his name(s). We could say, “God I honor you, I praise you as the Great Physician who has brought healing and continues to heal.” Or, “Holy are you God my savior, who has rescued me from the pit of despair.”
ii. Praising God’s Attributes
We can also praise God for his attributes or for what God has done in our life. This is very similar to praising God’s name except the focus is on how we have experienced God’s work in our life.
[Encourage the congregation to voice different attributes of God or ways you have experienced God’s work in theri life such as: Saving, comforting, giving, just, forgiving, merciful, all-powerful]
We could begin our prayer with “God, I appreciate you because of your (fill in the blank).”
The point of Jesus’ pattern of prayer is to get our focus off of ourselves and on God. Our prayers need to begin with God, “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” Notice Jesus’ prayer begins not with me, but with God.
The book of Revelation shows a picture of how God is honored through this model of praise for who God is and what he has done.
Revelation 4:8-11
"8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." 9 Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: 11 "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."
Again in Revelation 5, praise and worship continue as the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb (Jesus) and worshipped him singing a new song.
We need to spend time in prayer just praising God for who he. In heaven the four living creatures praise God for who he is saying “holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.” The 24 elders praise God for what he has done, “You are worthy, our Lord and God to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” We can praise God by lifting his name, and praising him for what he has done. You can use music, songs of praise to God, or just speak them out loud or in your mind.
What we SAY should reflect our praise. But there is another form of honoring God in prayer which we observe in Jesus’ prayer life and which we also find in Revelation 4. After they praise the Lord God for who he is and what he has done. They do something. What do they do?
B. Honor God by our actions in prayer
It says they fell down before him. The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders honor God by their verbal praise of him and by their actions as they fell down before God and they laid their crowns before his throne. Laying face down or prostrate, bowing down, or even kneeling in prayer is a symbol of our honoring God and submitting ourselves to his authority (his Lordship) and his will in our life. Many times in the Bible worship is synonymous with bowing down before, or laying prostrate before God or Jesus.
You may be familiar with the song based on Psalm 95:6 [sing]:
NAU Psalm 95:6 "Come, let us worship and…bow down, Let us…kneel before the LORD our Maker."
This Psalm (and song) reminds us that bowing down and kneeling is a part of our worship of God, whether public or private.
We know this was a practice of Jesus in his prayer life as well.
Luke 22:39 "Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him. 40 On reaching the place, he said to them, "Pray that you will not fall into temptation." 41 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, 42 "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."
In Mark’s account of the same event it says
Mark 14:35 Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. 36 "Abba, Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will."
Jesus knelt or fell to the ground, as a way of honoring God his Father’s will and authority over his life. As I was preparing for this sermon, this is an area where God has convicted me. I take God too casually in how I pray. Typically I sit on a chair, sometimes it’s a really comfy chair, and it’s easy to get distracted and take God too casually. I realize not everyone is physically capable of kneeling falling down before God, but at the very least bowing our head is a physical sign of honoring God.
When we pray how can we get our focus on God and honor him? Try to begin your prayer time this week by praising his name (whether as Savior, or Strong Tower or Physician). It doesn’t have to be lengthy, just sincere. Demonstrate your praise by your physical actions whether it is kneeling before God, or falling face to the ground, or at least bowing your head before him if you cannot physically do anything else. It may seem awkward at first, but over time it will become more natural. I believe the Lord honors the prayers of people who center their attention and focus on him.
